Exclusive: Informant in terror plot case says attack would have been ‘devastating’

Exclusive: Informant in terror plot case says attack would have been ‘devastating’

SEATTLE — Walli Mujahidh, who pleaded guilty in December 2011 to conspiracy to commit murder and to use weapons of mass destruction to attack recruits at a military facility in south Seattle, was sentenced Monday to 17 years in prison. His accomplice, Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, got 18 years last month.

They were both arrested after an informant named “Robert” contacted Seattle police when Abdul-Latif asked him if he could get automatic weapons and grenades. They planned to kill hundreds of people, including young military recruits.

The informant worked with Seattle Police Department officers and FBI agents to record hours of conversations with them, including their attack plans.

“It would have been an absolutely devastating day,” Robert said in an exclusive interview with Q13 FOX News.

He said the two planned to kill the armed guard, then throw grenades into rooms and shoot anyone that moved. Robert said it was a planned suicide mission.

“At one point he even said, ‘Let`s keep some people alive for hostages because the cops are going to show up, and we`ll shoot out with them … maybe we can get away.'”

The terrorists were angry about alleged U.S. atrocities in the Middle East, he said.

“There was also the intent of making CDs or DVDs and leaving them inside the truck. It was a suicide mission; that way they`d know who did it and why they did it,” Robert said.

Acting Seattle police Lt. Erik Allen was a sergeant in the intelligence unit and supervised the detectives who worked for months with Robert. Two FBI agents were also assigned to the case. \

“Were it not for that informant being in place, the first we would have known would have been the 911 calls from the Military Entrance Processing Station,” Allen said.

Robert is a convicted felon who had become a Muslim and served time in prison with Abdul-Latif. He approached a friend who convinced him to go to police after Abdul-Latif asked him to get machine guns and grenades.

He said he became an informant because, “I knew that there`s too great of a chance of this actually happening.”

Defense attorneys argued Robert was the mastermind behind the plot, but Robert denies that.

“I gave both of them a way out. I asked them, are you sure you want to do this? I won`t think any less of you if you decide you want to back out and scrap this, and both of them every time said, ‘Are you crazy? No, we`re doing this.'”

During the sting operation that led to Mujahidh and Abdul-Latif’s arrest, Robert said he handed them automatic weapons that had been rendered inoperable, and that it was like seeing kids in a candy store.

“They’re pulling the triggers, dropping clips even though the clips were empty, putting clips in and everything like that and getting in kneeling positions, aiming up, everything of that sort,” Robert said.

The terrorists planned to bury the rifles and then train.

Robert said Abdul-Latif “wanted to go through hundreds, if not thousands of rounds, to be able to hit as many targets (people) as possible and waste as little ammo as possible.”

When asked if the plot would have been successful if he had been in on it instead of turning informant, Robert said, “Most likely.”